Tuesday, November 29, 2011

catching up!

Well, I certainly didn't mean to be gone so long but there's been a lot going on at home the past few weeks. We have a daughter who turned 12 last week and wanted a sleepover party with her friends to celebrate! I hosted a Mystery Party for part of the time... and it was a lot of fun and it seemed like the girls really enjoyed doing that. I had been trying to think of something different they could do as a group and when I came across the Mystery Party I knew they would all really like it. They each got to play a character and it was really cute to see them dress up and play the part.
Since then, we've celebrated Thanksgiving and have spent the rest of the weekend switching our boys bedrooms around. They used to share a room, but the younger one keeps the older one up at night and that's not so good when you have to get up and go to school in the morning. So, I've been painting and updating our spare bedroom so that our oldest son can move in there. It's fun to see how a room transforms with just a little paint!

Anyway, last week I was over at A Little Bit Biased with a post about my sewing area in her Tuesday Tips feature. Amber has a great quilting blog and lots of pretty patterns! I've really enjoyed reading her blog and seeing her creations and I think you will, too.

These pictures are of a quilt pieces that I cut out a few weeks ago. I was so inspired by Jane Brocket's book called the Gentle Art of Quiltmaking that I got out of the library a few weeks ago. There's a trip around the world quilt pattern in the book and I knew I'd love to make one of my own.

Of course I decided to start this at about 9:30 at night. All the fabrics are from what I had on hand and so many of them ended up being *just* the right amount to make a round. It's a cheerful color combination and features so many of my favorite fabrics. I finished up laying out the rounds on the floor in the morning and took a few quick pictures. I knew if a little boy or a dog got near this it wouldn't stay neat for long!

I picked them up in piles and labeled all the rows and direction in which they're supposed to be sewn.

And here I started on the top left corner. So far I only have a couple of more rows to add. But that's ok, I think this will be a nice slow project to work on this winter.
I hope you have a great day!
~Jessica

** Please vote for me in the Celebrate Color competition! I'm a finalist in the Needlepoint category with my Three Pears Pillow. Thank you!**

I loooooovvvveeee trip around the world, just gorgeous, especially in fun funky fabrics! (have a peek at my blog for a quilt I finished last night and presented to my daughters prep teacher this morning... I have been super excited about it!)Michelle xxx

Jessica that quilt is going to be amazing!!! I am terrible at having those kind of small squares line up. We are fabric twins since all of those fabrics are my favorite to. The colors are amazing. I am going to covet this one for sure.

It's going to be gorgeous! I made one like it in shades of pink and purple for my sister and it turned out so nice.

When you stack the squares by row, how do you sew them together? Do you have to cut the thread after every pair or is there a way of chain piecing without mixing up the order? That's the most tedious part for me.

this quilt has me swooning! it's soooooooo pretty! i thought about making a quilt like this someday, but i rarely buy more than a FQ or a half yard of most fabrics, so i don't think i'd get very far. but maybe i'll attempt it someday anyway.